Respectfully, download numbers are not an adequate proxy for opinion. The number of companies mandating AI use plays in significantly. There are highly ploarized bubbles of opinion fwiw. In the end, it requires actual controlled polling of opinion to have a satisfactory understanding.

Additionally, I'm not sure how you square NYT coverage being more critical of generally worse behavior as "top down" without a citation, care to point at anything to substantiate that statement?

Innovative, in some part sure. But lately the running jokes have become "Uber, but for $X", which hints at imaginative stagnation. AI has been the largest shake up in a decade (or more), but it is hard for Average Joe to grasp what is changing.